


My Only Hope

by Doylebaby



Category: Actor RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-14
Updated: 2013-05-14
Packaged: 2017-12-11 20:59:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/803215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doylebaby/pseuds/Doylebaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eric has found Orlando, now they need to escape.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Only Hope

[ ](http://s21.photobucket.com/albums/b261/Doylebaby/?action=view&current=f82952e1.jpg)

My Only Hope

Eric gave Orlando a little nudge. “Be quiet and keep your head down!” he hissed in warning.

Orlando ducked his head and slithered over the forest floor towards the tunnel; with a bit of luck they would make it undetected. 

Luck ran out at that same moment as an alarm sounded. 

“Shit!” Orlando’s fist thumped the dirt. He didn’t stop moving to check, he knew what would happen next. 

They were going to be hunted mercilessly.

 

Orlando could hear the rustling of someone making their way through the forest and he stopped moving as he held his breath, afraid to make a noise.

He felt Eric’s larger form press close to him, trying to shield him from more harm.

Then they heard the dogs barking and where the dogs were, Lincoln’s men with their rifles were.

“Not good,” Eric grumbled and raised his head slightly to judge the distance between them and the tunnel. “We can still make it, but we have to run like the wind.” His concerned gaze scanned over his exhausted lover, noting the way he trembled with fatigue. 

“I can do it,” Orlando assured Eric with a small smile that hid nothing from the older man. It wasn’t as if they had any choice. They couldn’t let Orlando be captured again, they both knew he wouldn’t survive.

“Okay then,” Eric nodded. “Get ready.”

Orlando raised into a crouch. 

“Go!” Eric urged and Orlando ran, focused on getting as far as possible. He had very little energy left but he was determined to keep going; Eric was right behind him. He could do this for Eric, who had risked his own life to get him out of Lincoln’s clutches. 

The dogs were gaining on them however. If only they could make it to the tunnel…

Then something big hit Orlando in the back and he pitched forward, hitting the ground hard. Next he felt a tearing pain in his ankle as large jaws closed around his leg and he cried out in anguish.

“Orli!” Eric roared as he caught up with his lover and he pulled his gun.

“No!” Orlando shouted at him, his hands clawing in the dirt in agony.

Eric turned angry eyes on Orlando. “He wouldn’t hesitate to kill you if given the command,” he growled. 

Orlando shook his head. “Please, Eric.”

Even in his current predicament, Orlando’s love for animals got the better of him and Eric looked around in frustration, his eyes searching for something to get the dog off Orlando.

Next Orlando heard a howling sound and the pressure on his ankle was suddenly gone. He wanted to roll onto his back, worried about Eric and the dog, but he was hauled to his feet.

“Don’t look back,” Eric growled at him as he hoisted Orlando’s arm over his shoulder and moved his own arm around the younger man’s waist and started for the tunnel again.

Eric half dragged, half carried a frighteningly pale Orlando. The young man’s ankle was bleeding badly and he was panting heavily, exhaustion and pain getting the better of him. 

Their progress was slow and the hunters were approaching fast. 

“I _will_ shoot if I have to,” Eric muttered in warning. “We can’t risk being caught.”

Orlando nodded, accepting Eric’s need to keep them safe by any means. 

“Hold on, love,” Eric muttered as Orlando started to sag against him. “We’re almost there.”

 

A shot sounded and only by dropping to the ground instantly, did Eric save his and Orlando’s life. 

Orlando bit his lip to stifle a moan, his ankle was throbbing violently but he didn’t want to add to Eric’s worry. “I can crawl,” he whispered to the other man.

“I’ll cover you,” Eric murmured in response, his gun ready in his hand.

Orlando briefly touched Eric’s back before slowly making his way to the tunnel. He did his best to keep low and make as little noise as possible, but his ankle was hurting him a great deal and he couldn’t help looking back for Eric. 

Because of Eric he had managed to survive, Eric had been his only hope when they had brought him to this remote place. 

He knew Eric would find him, even if all the others would stop looking eventually. 

 

Orlando finally reached the tunnel and crawled inside, huddling as close to the wall as possible. Eric had said he would be safe here. 

His head jerked up when he heard shots being fired.

“Eric!” he screamed in terror. 

There was no reply from Eric, no dogs barking and no shooting… 

Only silence.

“I can’t lose you now,” Orlando whispered as his consciousness faded.

~ * ~ 

When Orlando regained consciousness he was safely in Eric’s arms, in the tunnel, with the gate closed and the doors in place. No one could get to them from the forest side.

“I kept hoping you would come for me,” Orlando said, rubbing his cheek over Eric’s shirt. “I knew you would find out where they kept me.” He lifted his head to look into Eric’s eyes. “Because of you I never gave up.”

Eric, rubbed up and down Orlando’s arm in a soothing motion. “None of us stopped looking for you, Orli. I was just lucky to run into someone who remembered this place in the countryside.”

Orlando closed his eyes again, his breathing was shallow and Eric was worried he could still lose him.

“We’ll have you in hospital soon, love, they’re coming to get us.” He reassured the man in his arms. 

Orlando dozed off for a while again and Eric regretted not having any water or even a biscuit for him to eat. Orlando had always been slender, but now he was emaciated. 

It had been three months. 

Three months in which they had searched everywhere. Not only in Britain; contacts in Europe had been on the lookout for him there. Even if they only vaguely suspected John Lincoln of being connected with a country they had followed it up. 

But Orlando seemed to have vanished into thin air.

Then they had been approached by one of Lincoln’s old ‘employees’. There was obviously no love lost between them as the man revealed several previously unknown, very remote hiding places. 

Like this one in Scotland. 

Eric hadn’t hesitated and had commandeered the helicopter together with Hugh and Karl and then had travelled on alone by car as far as possible. He had staked out the surroundings for a couple of days and only then decided on the best course of action. 

The fact that the tunnel could be closed and locked from inside was a bonus. Lincoln’s former employee had muttered something about ‘the resistance or maybe the middle-ages’ either was highly unlikely and Eric hadn’t really cared as long as it helped him get Orlando to safety.

There was a sigh and Eric looked down at Orlando, stroking his curls in comfort. “Not long now, love,” he told him. 

Orlando cleared his throat, water becoming an urgent need now. “Did my father… did he give in?” 

Eric tightened his arms around the smaller man, pulling him even closer to his chest. “No, he didn’t… I know it was the most sensible way, but… when he said no, I could have killed him!”

Orlando chuckled and then coughed. “I’m glad… he didn’t… It doesn’t mean he doesn’t love me.”

True. Jonathan Bloom cared about his children, but he wasn’t going to be blackmailed. Eric could only admire him for that, it didn’t mean he had to like it though. 

Eric lifted his head when he heard the helicopter, Orlando’s ordeal would be over soon.

Two figures appeared silhouetted at the other end of the tunnel and Eric stood, lifting Orlando in his arms. 

“You’re going home, Orli,” he whispered to his once more unconscious lover and started walking towards the light.

The End


End file.
